Professor Salikoko S. Mufwene, of the department of linguistics at the University of Chicago, says the enslaved Africans and their descendants created the dialect in response to their own linguistic diversity.

CNN: African slave traditions live on in U.S.

Dozens of officers surrounded and cordoned off the building, known as the Stata Center, which houses computer science laboratories as well as the department of linguistics and philosophy, according to MIT's website.

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Dr Tony McEnery, of the University of Lancaster's Department of Linguistics, who has compiled a huge database of modern English usage, says children and teenagers are "quite productive" in their use of abusive language.

BBC: Refugee: today's playground insult?

Prior to joining the United Nations in 1981, Mr. Mahmoud worked as an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Tunis, Tunisia, and as Chairman of the English Department of the Bourguiba Institute of Modern Languages in Tunis.

UN: Secretary-General